microSD Shield Assembly and Testing

Activity Objective

• Assemble Sparkfun’s microSD Shield

Equipment Needed

• (C) Soldering station
• (S) microSD shield
• (S) stackable header kit
• (S) \(10 k\Omega\) resistor
• (S) SPDT Switch
• (S) Wire

(C) - In classroom, (I) - provided by instructor, (S) - provided by student or in kit

Activity Procedure

Procedure 1:

1. Review Sparkfun’s Arduino shield tutorial on how to solder stackable headers to an Arduino shield found here.
2. Complete the soldering steps for the microSD shield found here.
3. Run the first example sketches found here.
4. Raise your hand and demonstrate to the instructor that the example sketch works. If you receive a “Wiring is correct, and a card is present.” message, your shield is correctly assembled. If you receive an “initialization failed.” message, double-check your soldering and make sure all the joints are correct. Successful completion of the first example sketch will determine your quiz grade.

Procedure 2:

1. Review the different regions of the Sparkfun microSD shield shown below Figure 1. Note region 1, the prototyping area. Each hole in the prototyping area is disconnected from everything. In order to connect components in the prototyping area, a wire or solder bridge must be placed between the two holes that the components are in.

Figure 1: Shield Overview

2. Review the switch circuit shown below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Arduino Switch Circuit

3. Review the switch circuit implemented within the prototyping area of the microSD shield shown below in Figure 3. Both a front and back view are provided.

Figure 3: Arduino Shield

(a) Front

(b) Back

4. Cut and strip both ends of two small lengths of wire (approximately \(0.75in\)).
5. Cut and strip both ends of one small length of wire (approximately \(1.5in\)).
6. Using the wires created in steps 4 and 5, a \(10 k\Omega\) resistor (brown, black, orange), and an SPDT switch, construct the switch circuit in the microSD shield’s prototyping area.
7. Solder all necessary joints.
8. Test the switch circuit by uploading the example sketch DigitalReadSerial found at File > Examples > 01.Basics > DigitalReadSerial. The serial monitor should display 0 or 1 when the switch is in the off or on position, respectively.
9. Show the Arduino IDE’s serial monitor displaying the 0 or 1 values for your completed switch circuit to the instructor.

Assignment

After completing procedures 1, and 2, complete the following items:

• Ensure the instructor has recorded steps 4 and 9 from procedure 1 and 2, respectively, by the end of class on F 3-22
• Memo detailing the conducted lab. Submission should be made on Canvas by the beginning of class on F 4-5